“It’s a much more complicated picture than the picture that the administration wanted to put out before,” he said. “It’s a very hierarchical institution. All the people that are being singled out for blame are powerless.”

This is something that Wainstein did not take into account during his investigation, he said.

Steve Wing, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and member of the group, agrees the hierarchical nature of the University is cause for concern.

“One of our concerns is that the one department has been blamed and that people who don’t have job protections have been blamed,” he said.

This goes hand-in-hand with the racialization of the scandal, he said.

“We can blame black student-athletes. We can blame black scholars. We can blame black students that take those classes. I think that’s the easy narrative,” Cravey said. “But why not look at all the responsibility for the institutional and systemic failures of 20 years letting this go on?”

Driscoll thinks the response is too focused on athletes.

“The frats do it too,” he said. “What about the frats?”

Wing said he believes the blame should be directed towards the University, which exploits athletes and undervalues their education.

“It may help the University raise money, and apparently, it helps the University raise a lot of money. But that’s not the purpose of the University. The purpose is education,” he said.

The question of what to do next is a loaded one, but Driscoll has an idea.

“If you wanted to really address the change, would be to address the power asymmetry,” he said.

The current hierarchy makes it hard for faculty members to speak up, fearing repercussions and even job loss, he said.

“There’s no place to criticize the University on campus. That has to change.”